Angelique Kerber might yet celebrate her return to No. 1 with a BNP Paribas Open title after battling past Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the fourth round on Monday.
Parmentier, the world No. 62 from France, had the two-time Grand Slam champion from Germany on the ropes with a break and a 4-1 lead in the third set.
However, Kerber fought back with a break in the seventh game and another in a marathon 11th game that gave her a 6-5 lead and a chance to serve for the match.
Photo: AFP
Kerber, who rose to No. 1 in the world with her US Open triumph last year, is set to regain the summit no matter how far she goes this week thanks to the withdrawal of Serena Williams due to injury.
She needed 2 hours, 33 minutes in the baking sun on Stadium Court to get past Parmentier, who until this year had never won a match at Indian Wells in five prior appearances.
Kerber next faces Russian Elena Vesnina, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 winner over Hungarian Timea Babos.
Fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep, yet to regain peak form in the wake of a nagging knee injury, was dispatched by in-form Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-3.
France’s Mladenovic, who has already lifted one trophy and reached another WTA final this year, had no trouble notching another top-five win.
Halep, the 2015 Indian Wells champion, was not too discouraged, saying the knee trouble that forced her to pull out of St Petersburg before her quarter-final last month had since limited her training.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams booked a fourth-round berth with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Lucie Safarova.
The American next faces China’s Peng Shuai, who ousted sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4.
The US’ Madison Keys, playing her first event of the year after surgery on her left wrist, eased past Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4.
In the men’s singles, third-seeded Stan Wawrinka continued his dominance of Philipp Kohlschreiber, rolling past the German 7-5, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
Wawrinka recorded his fifth victory over Kohlschreiber in as many meetings in a performance that left him cautiously encouraged about his prospects of making it past the quarter-finals in the California desert for the first time.
A break in each set was enough for Wawrinka, who did not face a break point himself as he advanced to a meeting with lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, who staged a remarkable rally to get past 13th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Wawrinka is the highest-ranked player remaining in the top half of the draw after world No. 1 Andy Murray’s shock loss to 129th-ranked qualifier Vasek Pospisil in the second round.
Eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem powered into the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Mischa Zverev.
Thiem next faces 10th-seeded Gael Monfils, who dispatched American John Isner 6-2, 6-4 in just 68 minutes.
Elsewhere, Pospisil was unable to build on the best win of his career, falling to fellow qualifier Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 7-5 just two days after toppling Murray.
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